Do not have a website that you can reference for effective business
email writing but here is something I compiled for my colleagues to
reference, may be of some help.
1. Be concise and to the point.
Do not make an e-mail longer than it needs to be. Remember that
reading an e-mail is harder than reading printed communications and a
long e-mail can be very discouraging to read.
2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions.
An email reply must answer all questions, and pre-empt further
questions ? If you do not answer all the questions in the original
email, you will receive further e-mails regarding the unanswered
questions, which will not only waste your time and your customer?s
time but also cause considerable frustration. Moreover, if you are
able to pre-empt relevant questions, your customer will be grateful
and impressed with your efficient and thoughtful customer service.
Imagine for instance that a customer sends you an email asking which
credit cards you accept. Instead of just listing the credit card
types, you can guess that their next question will be about how they
can order, so you also include some order information and a URL to
your order page. Customers will definitely appreciate this.
3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation.
This is not only important because improper spelling, grammar and
punctuation give a bad impression of your company, it is also
important for conveying the message properly. E-mails with no full
stops or commas are difficult to read and can sometimes even change
the meaning of the text. And, if your program has a spell checking
option, why not use it?
4. Make it personal.
Not only should the e-mail be personally addressed, it should also
include personal i.e. customized content. For this reason auto replies
are usually not very effective. However, templates can be used
effectively in this way, see next tip.
5. Use templates for frequently used responses.
Some questions you get over and over again, such as directions to your
office or how to subscribe to your newsletter. Save these texts as
response templates and paste these into your message when you need
them. You can save your templates in a Word document, or use
pre-formatted emails.
6. Answer swiftly.
Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a quick
response. If they did not want a quick response they would send a
letter or a fax. Therefore, each e-mail should be replied to within at
least 24 hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the
email is complicated, just send an email back saying that you have
received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the
customer's mind at rest and usually customers will then be very
patient!
7. Use proper structure & layout.
Since reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper,
the structure and lay out is very important for e-mail messages. Use
short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. When making
points, number them or mark each point as separate to keep the
overview.
8. Do not write in CAPITALS.
IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be
highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response in the form of
a flame mail. Therefore, try not to send any email text in capitals.
9. Don't leave out the message thread.
When you reply to an email, you must include the original mail in your
reply, in other words click 'Reply', instead of 'New Mail'. Some
people say that you must remove the previous message since this has
already been sent and is therefore unnecessary. However, I could not
agree less. If you receive many emails you obviously cannot remember
each individual email. This means that a 'threadless email' will not
provide enough information and you will have to spend a frustratingly
long time to find out the context of the email in order to deal with
it. Leaving the thread might take a fraction longer in download time,
but it will save the recipient much more time and frustration in
looking for the related emails in their inbox!
10. Read the email before you send it.
A lot of people don't bother to read an email before they send it out,
as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained
in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the
recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid
misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.
11. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons.
In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the
way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient might not be aware of the
meanings of the abbreviations and in business emails these are
generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the
smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it
means, it is better not to use it.
12. Use active instead of passive.
Try to use the active voice of a verb wherever possible. For instance,
'We will process your order today', sounds better than 'Your order
will be processed today'. The first sounds more personal, whereas the
latter, especially when used frequently, sounds unnecessarily formal.
13. Avoid long sentences.
Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of 15-20 words. Email is meant
to be a quick medium and requires a different kind of writing than
letters. Also take care not to send emails that are too long. If a
person receives an email that looks like a dissertation, chances are
that they will not even attempt to read it!
14. Keep your language gender neutral.
In this day and age, avoid using sexist language such as: 'The user
should add a signature by configuring his email program'. Apart from
using he/she, you can also use the neutral gender: ''The user should
add a signature by configuring the email program'. |
